[105 Pages Report] The global hub motor market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.01% during the forecast period to reach USD 10.82 billion by 2025 from an estimated USD 7.69 billion in 2018. Hub motor improves the performance of electric vehicles. Hub motor helps supply torque to its associated tire and generates more power to improve the efficiency of a vehicle. The other benefits of hub motor technology is that it provides a pleasant and an effortless ride, e.g. in case of bicycles when a rider does not feel like pedaling.

Electric bikes account for largest market size during forecast period

The electric bikes segment is estimated to be the largest of the global hub motor market in 2018. The market growth of hub motors can be attributed to factors such as high torque, increased power, and provision of better vehicle handling to both new and existing vehicles. The increasing support from governments in France and Norway and the OEMs efforts to improve the existing electric two wheelers models are expected to drive the sales of electric bikes during the forecast period, which, in turn, would boost the demand for hub motors for electric bikes.

By Installation type, rear hub motor is expected to be the largest contributor in the hub motor market during the forecast period.

Rear hub motors are predominantly used in the global hub motor market. This type of installation provides powerful acceleration, better traction, and high flexibility. The powerful hub motors are appropriate for rear installation because higher power can be better handled in the rear wheel of the e-bikes. Major electric two wheeler manufacturers prefer installing hub motors in the rear wheel to take advantage of the traction control.

In motor type, geared hub motor is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period.

The geared hub motor is the largest and the fastest growing segment for motor type in the global hub motor market as it controls the speed of a vehicle. Geared hub motors provide high torque which helps in driving on mountains or hills. Asia Pacific is the largest market for geared hub motor. Geared hub motors are lighter in weight and smaller in size; hence, their major application is in e-bikes. The increasing sales of e-bikes in the Asia Pacific region will boost the demand for geared hub motor in this region.

Asia Pacific is expected to account for the largest market size during the forecast period

Asia Pacific is the largest hub motor market. China is the largest market in Asia Pacific because it is promoting the use of electric two wheelers to lower the rising pollution and vehicle emissions in the country. It is the worlds largest producer of e-bikes. Increase in sales of electric two wheelers will lead to the increase in sales of hub motors. For instance, NTN has developed the air-cooled in-wheel motor driving system and vehicle motion control system and concluded with FSAT, which is a Chinese company for designing and manufacturing automobile. NTN will provide technical support to FSAT for producing lightweight New Energy Vehicles (NEVs), which adopt in-wheel motor driving systems.

The global hub motor market is dominated by major players such as QS Motor (China), Schaeffler Technologies (Germany), Michelin (France), Jiashan Neopower International Trade (China), and Elaphe (Slovenia). These companies have strong distribution networks at the global level. In addition, these companies offer an extensive product range in the OEMs. The key strategies adopted by these companies to sustain their market position are new product developments, collaborations, and contracts & agreements.

Recent Developments

In July 2018, QS motor launched a cool liquid assembly designed for 14 kW hub motor with the heat sink, which avoids efficiency hampering issues such as overheating of motor at high load. This product is now available in the market.

In May 2018, Elaphe launched the second generation Elaphe L1500 in-wheel motor at the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo 2018 in Germany.

In October 2017, NTN developed the industry's first eHUB, which combines a motor generator with a hub bearing used to support wheel rotation. eHUB is mounted on the rear wheels (non-driven wheels) to provide driving assistance with motor generators to reduce engine load and acts as a power generator to regenerate energy into electric power when decelerating.

In October 2016, Schaeffler introduced innovative new vehicle concepts. The complete integration of the electric motor, power electronics, and the control unit installed directly in the wheel enables new degrees of functional freedom along with installation space advantages compared to conventional drive concepts.

Critical Questions:

Where will the electric two wheelers sales take the industry in the long term?

Will the industry cope with the challenge of high cost of the hub motor market?

How do you see the impact of the additional weight of hub motors?

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The study involved four major activities to estimate the current market size for hub motors. Exhaustive secondary research was done to collect information on market, peer market and parent market. The next step was to validate these findings, assumptions, and sizing with industry experts across value chains through primary research. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches were employed to estimate the complete market size. Thereafter, market breakdown and data triangulation was used to estimate the market size of segments and subsegments.

Primary Research

Extensive primary research has been conducted after acquiring an understanding of the hub motor market scenario through secondary research. Several primary interviews have been conducted with the market experts from the demand- and supply-side OEMs (in terms of component supply, country-level government associations, and trade associations), and component manufacturers across three major regions, namely, North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Approximately 23% and 77% of primary interviews have been conducted from the demand and supply side, respectively. Primary data has been collected through questionnaires, emails, and telephonic interviews. In the canvassing of primaries, we have strived to cover various departments within organizations, such as sales, operations, and administration, to provide a holistic viewpoint in our report.

After interacting with industry experts, we have also conducted brief sessions with highly experienced independent consultants to reinforce the findings from our primaries. This, along with the in-house subject-matter experts opinions, has led us to the findings as described in the remainder of this report. Following is the

Market Size Estimation

Both top-down and bottom-up approaches were used to estimate and validate the total size of the hub motor market. These methods were also used extensively to estimate the size of various sub segments in the market. The research methodology used to estimate the market size includes the following:

The key players in the industry and markets have been identified through extensive secondary research.

The industrys supply chain and market size, in terms of value, have been determined through primary and secondary research processes.

All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns have been determined using secondary sources and verified through primary sources.

Data Triangulation

After arriving at the overall market size-using the market size estimation processes as explained above-the market was split into several segments and subsegments. To complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics of each market segment and subsegment, the data triangulation and market breakdown procedures were employed, wherever applicable. The data was triangulated by studying various factors and trends from both, the demand and supply sides.

Report Objectives

To segment and forecast the global hub motor market size, in terms of volume (units) and value (USD million)

To define, describe, and forecast the global hub motor market based on motor type, vehicle type, power output, installation type, and region